Top tier product. Extremely well thought out and designed. We have had ours for 6 months or so. I did a ton of research and review reading before we chose this monitor to include separate stand-alone video cameras and monitors with separate audio monitors. Here’s a summary of the best elements and why you would do well to buy this one. My brother bought a stand alone HD 1080p video quality camera to monitor his kids. However, you must have a WiFi connection to set it up on. They also needed a separate audio monitor solution with the setup they chose. Also, they have to monitor the camera with an app, which based on our real-life experience with the DXR-8 would no longer be a consideration for us. Having a self-contained system in the DXR-8 is absolutely the simplest and best option for a number of reasons in our opinion. Firstly, it is stand alone and does not require WiFi, it communicates directly from the camera to the monitor. Also, you don’t need to have an app on your phone which is soooo nice, because you can have the monitor up and listening to audio at all times and still have your phone free for all the things you do on there. Having this self-contained system is awesome, when we go to the Lakehouse or to a hotel when traveling the DXR-8 is small and a snap to pack up and set up in the new location - no trying to get WiFi access. It is - quite simply - effortless. Also, I cannot think of a practical need for a higher-resolution monitor (screen) for monitoring your baby while they sleep or play. The primary things we watch for is 1) are they breathing, 2) how are they positioned in the crib, 3) are they sleeping or fighting going to sleep. The resolution on the DXR-8 is more than adequate for all of those things. Plus, and one of the most exceptional feature - is the zoom feature. While they do have several different lenses you can put on the camera (which is awesome), we found that the standard lense works best for us BECAUSE OF THE ZOOM OPTION! So we can set the camera on the corner of the crib with some Gorilla tape underneath it to hold it in place, or we can set it across the room and zoom in and still see everything we need to see. Then of course you can pan left and right and tilt up and down, so you can do everything you can possibly conceive of with this system. Also, and we didn’t realize this being new parents when we bought this - most of the time, and throughout the night - audio cues are primarily what you will be paying attention to. You can flip on the camera anytime, and it has settings for staying on 3min or 5min before the screen blanks, or until you click the button again to turn the image off again. Having the camera off extends the battery life. If you need to keep the audio turned off, any sounds the baby makes will still register a color scale on the left side of the screen from red (low volume sounds) to green (high volume sounds) so you can still monitor audio activity without having the volume up. My spouse and I take turns having the monitor every other night, and if our son wakes us up initially with a sound, we can turn the volume off and continue to monitor the audio level with the led register. Also you can dim the screen, we have it on full dim at night so it doesn’t completely light up our bedroom in the middle of the night if we check on him. It brightens plenty to see it outside during the daytime as well. And I could write more great details on the night mode as well as day mode. Also, the camera pan and tilt is not noisy as I had read in one review. While it may not be completely silent, it it definitely not a significant source of sound and has never had an effect on our sleeping child. And on top of all that, their customer service is absolutely top-tier. Gladys has helped us twice since we’ve had the product. We have had a battery start to have issues with not holding a charge and they rapidly got the replacement process started the same day we reached out to them. I don’t know if you’ll get Gladys, but whoever you get will be as excellent as her I’m sure. There are real people in the support department and they treat you like a person; you’re not just another number feeling like getting real support help is more theoretical then it is practical with these guys. So, highly recommmend from A to Z. Don’t think you can go wrong with this! Also you can pair up to 4 cameras to the one monitor. We just move the camera around during the day, but you could install one in the nursery, on in the living room, and wherever else you like - and switch between them all with one monitor. Hope this has helped if you’re a research nerd like I am. I had to read multiple reviews in multiple different locations to make my final decision on what to buy. Hopefully this review has been thorough enough to help you learn all you need to know about the DXR-8. Maybe it’s not what your looking for, but I would be hard-pressed to imagine any scenario where another product could serve its purpose any better. As for us, we are happy, happy campers. :)
